Molly Prewett stared at the swirling steam billowing from the train that would take her back to school, reliving an incident from last year. Lucius Malfoy had cursed her best friend, Anisa, just because she was Muggle-born. It happened the last time they boarded the train, at the end of the Summer Term. This particular incident had made her so angry, she wanted to curse his ears into kumquats. However, she didn't get a chance - Malfoy was too quick for her. He immobilised her as she pulled out her wand.
Anisa,
Molly and her brother Fabian were sitting playing a game of Exploding
Snap when the compartment door slid open. Lucius Malfoy swaggered in,
his blonde hair swinging with each step he took. Molly looked at him
and scowled. He was loathed all over the school. He bullied first and
second years, and had even reduced Agatha Miller, a fellow seventh
year, to tears.
But Malfoy had so
far shown no intentions of bullying anyone. He looked at Molly and
smiled. Molly felt her insides squirm, not with pleasure, but with
loathing.
"You
don't have to hang out with that slime, Prewett," he said, his
voice deeper and more mature than usual. "You can come and sit with
us, if you want." Malfoy turned and sneered at Fabian's
second-hand robes, and his lip curled as he stared at Anisa. Molly
knew what was running through his mind. Anisa was a Muggle-born, and
Purebloods like Lucius Malfoy and his father, Abraxas, were known to
be proud of their so-called "purity."
"Shove off,
Malfoy," Molly replied coolly. It was no secret that Malfoy fancied
her. Everyone else, even Fabian and Gideon, thought it was amusing.
Molly just thought it was disgusting.
"You're not
wanted here, nor will you ever be," Anisa added icily. Anisa had
also developed a strong dislike for Malfoy. In previous years, he had
mocked and teased her about her Muggle parentage. He also called her
the derogatory term, "Mudblood," more often than not, not to
mention making fun of her clumsiness at every chance he got.
"No
one asked for your opinion, Mudblood," he said, his face
screwed up in anger. Molly noticed there was a red flush creeping up
Malfoy's normally pale face. She stood up, as did Fabian. Fabian's
hand plunged into his pocket for his wand. His neck began to glow
red, which was always a danger sign, and he said, "Didn't you
hear my sister, Malfoy? Shove off."
"How
dare you talk to me? This conversation was not directed at you,
Muggle-lover," spat Malfoy. Clearly Malfoy had noticed the
chemistry between Anisa and Fabian.
Molly felt a surge
of anger, so she walked forward and whispered in Anisa's ear, "Just
ignore him, everyone knows you're an amazing person." Anisa
beamed at her.
Suddenly,
there was a cry of "Crescocapillus!" from Fabian just as
Malfoy bellowed, "Levicorpus!" Fabian swung up into the
air with a bang, held up by his ankle, and Malfoy grew a long braid
of hair flowing from his nose.
"How
dare you!" he screamed. Molly suppressed a snicker with
difficulty; she knew it would only aggravate him more. "I, one of
the Pure-Bloods, and you–you–wait until my father hears–!"
Abraxas Malfoy
was well known for stirring up trouble, but always obediently (and
somewhat aggravatingly, to the Wizarding World) kept his feet just
behind the line of the law.
Molly
caught Anisa's eye, and Anisa started to giggle at Malfoy's new
and improved – in their opinion - appearance. Malfoy rounded on her
and snarled angrily. He raised his wand, and yelled "AdaugeoCruris!" Suddenly, Anisa tripped sprouted long tentacles all
over her face.
"Anisa!"
cried Molly and Fabian in unison.
Before
Molly could let Fabian down and force Malfoy to release Anisa, Malfoy
pointed his wand at her, and whispered menacingly, "You have one
last chance, Prewett," he spat, losing his patience at last. "Will
you go out with me?"
"Not even if you
were a perfect gentleman," Molly said, before she could stop
herself.
Malfoy
flushed again. Clearly it was embarrassing to ask out a Gryffindor,
especially since the houses didn't get along. Turning down a
proposed date, therefore, was not acceptable.
"Immobulus!" Malfoy hissed, with a mixture of anger and ("Could it be?" thought Molly) sorrow on his face. A jet of light issued from Malfoy's wand, and Molly felt herself freeze up.
Maybe that was why she couldn't fall in love with anyone. Every boy she'd met just wasn't . . . right. She couldn't really explain it; she just wasn't interested in any of the guys she knew. The boys in the Gryffindor common room were odd, to say the least, and every boy that wasn't odd she'd never met before and was a little shy about talking to them. Molly didn't socialise with any guys except her brothers Fabian and Gideon, and sometimes even they got on her nerves. Anisa thought she was mentally unbalanced, and she would, Molly thought sadly. She'd had at least five boyfriends in the past couple of years. All this, combined with the fact that she almost puked every time she imagined Lucius Malfoy kissing her, made Molly a little hesitant around boys.
Anisa and Fabian hadn't taken kindly to being outsmarted by Malfoy, and they were rather embarrassed. Finally, Molly had been able to summon her wand nonverbally, and then she released Fabian. He had released Molly, and then she went to get Gideon from the Prefect's compartment. He then found their mother, who looked up the countercurse and performed it on Anisa before they strode through the barrier, away from Platform 9 ¾, and back into the Muggle world.
"You OK, Molly?" asked Fabian, striding forward, craning his neck, anxiously looking for Anisa.
"Nothing, just thinking about boys," said Molly glumly.
"Boys?" said Fabian incredulously.
"I mean–oh honestly, Fabe, not that kind of thinking–thinking about why I–you know, why I've never been that great around them," Molly continued, her voice lowering with every word.
"You need a life," said Fabian in a mock sorrowful voice.
"So do you," she said playfully, punching him in the shoulder. Fabian did an imitation of a wounded soldier, clutching his arm where Molly had hit him and yelping in mock pain.
"Anisa! Over here!" cried Fabian suddenly, and dropped the soldier impression as a tall, skinny, ebony-haired girl stumbled over to them. "Hey!" she said. "You two had better hurry, or we'll miss the train."
"Always punctual, are we?" teased Fabian. Anisa smiled at him, causing a faint blush to creep around his neck.
"Will Gideon be joining us?" asked Molly, glancing around, hesitant to board the train.
"He's already on, I expect," said Fabian carelessly, looking at Anisa.
"I meant, will he be joining us after he assigns the Prefects their hall patrol schedules and stuff?" asked Molly, slightly impatiently.
"Oh, that's right, he's Head Boy this year," said Anisa vaguely.
"Yes, and believe me, ever since he got that badge, he hasn't let us forget it," said Fabian. Anisa laughed.
With that, they boarded the Hogwarts Express, Fabian looking faintly pleased, Molly looking fairly exasperated with Fabian's sudden brain lapse, and Dakota smiling.
As they all started a game of Exploding Snap, Molly could not possibly know that this, her seventh and final year at Hogwarts, would be her most eventful . . . and that she would finally get a boyfriend.
